Cartoon of The Day: Low Lag Avatar

 

 

 Taken at the Moon Dance on June 6. Someone showed up as a stick figure. Since lag is often a problem in Second Life, extremely simple avatars would have some use. 

By Bixyl Shuftan

Sansar Numbers Averaging Less Than 50 Users A Day

When Sansar was finally released several months ago. it initially got a number of curious lookers. But most were disappointed, and stopped coming. It still has a few advocates such as Draxtor Despress, and as his Hoverderby video earlier this month shows there's still groups of people who have fun there. But how many use the place on a regular basis? It turns out the number is surprisingly small. A recent article by Hamlet Au stated data provided by Sansar user Gindipple shows the next-generation virtual world's concurrency numbers averages just ten to fifty users a day!

"It's pretty obvious there isn't much growth right now," Hamlet quoted Gindipple, though the Sansar user remained optimiastic "I wouldn't be here if I didn't think it was set to win the game. So it's got a ways to go yet. They've been a bit slow on development, but there is some recent indications that they are starting to focus some on what I feel is important, allowing us programmers to create rich interactive scenes."

So why aren't people using Sansar? It's no big secret that Linden Lab has been looking beyond it's existing virtual world for users, "casting a wide net." But as the numbers show, it's failed to get more than a tiny number. So are practically all virtual world users in Second Life? Perhaps not as statistics about VR Chat show even after going down from a high of 20,000 users during the "Ugandan Knuckles" meme, this other next-generation virtual world still gets several thousand users a day.

Still, even the successful VR Chat is behind Second Life which after fifteen years still has tens of thousands of people online at any given time. With only one Sansar user for about every several hundred Second Life users, it's clear where Linden Lab's future, at least for the next decade, lies.

Sources: New World Notes, Steam

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: Skin Burn

Burn2 isn't QUITE over yet!

Burning Man’s Ten Principles calls for Radical Self Expression. As part of that Self Expression, Burning Culture includes nudity and decorated nudity.

For BURN2, we see it as an opportunity to celebrate the Burning Culture while watching The Man burn under low lag conditions!

How? SKIN BURN!

We do this by having our Avatars wearing just skins, no prim attachments and minimal scripts, so we have minimal Avatar Render Weight (the former Avatar Rendering Cost, or ARC), slowing down the Virtual Playa server.

We first tried this in 2010; this event was an instant hit. We're bringing it back again to the Virtual Playa with the Skin Burn on November 10th! ! Below you will find the information for this years Skin Burn.

To get to the Skin Burn sim, one must be in the BURN2 Skin Burn Group and have the tag active.

Hope to see you there! REMEMBER, access is only available to a limited number of avatars! First come, first served! Alternate viewing of the Skin Burn will be from Elko.

If you have any questions please contact iSkye Silverweb or Neeks Karu.

Date: November 10, 2011
Times:
Avatar Checking: 11:30 AM SLT - 1:00 PM SLT
The Man will burn at 2:00 PM SLT
DJ music will be playing from 2:30 PM SLT.

Place: Hualapai Sim
NOTE: Sim will be CLOSED to all except BURN2 SKIN BURN Group members!

Details:
Everyone must be checked in first for low ARC and low script count at a place off sim. Once they pass the checks, they will be invited to the BURN2 Skin Burn group and given the LM to Hualapai. Check-ins will be from 11:30am - 1:00pm SLT and then close. Free art skins will be available at the check-in for those who don't have any.